DPS has a Major Image Problem

It is clear that Detroit Public Schools has a major image problem. Now in no way am I saying that DPS doesn’t have problems because they do but there is a huge difference between perception and reality. The reality is that DPS does have a long list of problems but the perception is that many of DPS’s problems are worst than national standards or other cities across the nation yet alone Michigan when that is not the truth. DPS problems seem to be escalated by the national media who only cover half the story or threw data out there that is inaccurate and not based on solid factual data that takes into account all the factors necessary to access graduation and dropout rates of a school.

Nonetheless, I am thankful that Bill Cosby is here doing public service announcements for DPS and he is telling Detroiters to fix the ills but with all due respect to my frat brother, the ills in DPS are not more so the people of Detroit’s problem to fix but it is more so the central staff of DPS to fix and the state of Michigan who created much of the problems that exist in DPS. Prior to DPS getting taken over by the State of Michigan, both students and parents were active and even after the initial takeover by the state, students and parents stayed active. However since that time, many parents, teachers, administrators, students and community stakeholders stayed active but so many stopped because our progress and ideas to change the system to make it better went on death ears.

So while Dr. Cosby wants Detroiters to take responsibility for improving our city, the real question is will our ideas and solutions be taken seriously when we as a people have seen that many of the suggestions we make go on death ear. That is why at this point in time, Detroiters are tired of the pep talks and the broken promises of change that will involve us the people but never actually involves us. Detroiters want to improve DPS but at the same time, we want the good about Detroit reported just as much as the bad but most of all we want the correct information reported as it relates to the bad dealing with DPS and not inaccurate information.

DPS’s image problem is causing it more grief than the actual problems plaguing the district itself. Take for insistence, Gregory Kane, a Baltimore journalist, wrote that “Money won’t fix what’s broken in Detroit schools” and I strongly agree with that. In fact even Free Press Editorial and Opinion Editor Stephen Henderson reported on the article and to a degree agreed with the comments within it. Still what neither one of these articles mention is that fact that what inspired the article by Mr. Kane is a piece he saw on BET that was accurate in its content and data. For instance, I went to the BET website to see where exactly they came with their data and the first thing I read quickly explains even when BET tries to cover impactful and educational issues, it distorts the truth. Read the following sentence and tell me what you think:
“In Detroit, more than 6 million American students drop out of high school, most of them Black and Latino. BET News will travel to the predominantly Black city of Detroit, where the high school dropout statistics are even more shocking: two out of every three teens drop out.”

Yes if you are reading this sentence correctly it makes it seem as if Detroit has 6 million American students drop of high school but that is impossible because Detroit doesn’t even have a population of 1 million people which is the highest population Detroit has ever had. But this is the opening sentence on the BET website in regards to the coverage they did on Detroit in its documentary called "Heart of the City: Detroit's Drop Out Factories." Then the next inaccurate data on the website is the it state the Class of 2008 for Detroit Public Schools is 58.2%, however they don’t state where they got this data from and according to the State of Michigan, DPS’s graduation rate is little bit below 70% which is not saying Detroit is great when for the State of Michigan the graduation rate is 85% or higher. Still nearly a 10% difference between what BET reports and what the State of Michigan Department of Education is a drastic difference and in today’s time, DPS deserves its fair share of all the positive data it can get regardless of how low it is compared to the state and national standards.

I’m in no way saying that DPS doesn’t have a problem when it comes to its graduation rate or drop out but to label Detroit as a Dropout Factory is insulting to the city of Detroit and the youth who graduate from DPS every year. I admit that many students who start in DPS don’t graduate from DPS yet alone graduate period. But that is in no way means DPS is a dropout factory for those who don’t graduate. What the BET documentary doesn’t expose is that fact that DPS has been taken over by the state twice with the latest being Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb and it doesn’t take into account how the graduation and dropout was before the first takeover which was much better than it is now. Secondly BET and other national media sources don’t take into account the fact that nearly 70 plus schools have been closed in DPS this decade and the impact on how many students got to school after the closures has drastically impacted graduation and dropout rates when many students feared going to certain parts of time where their new school was located because of the violence and gang rivalries in certain areas.

Now I am not saying that these problems don’t exist in other urban areas but the truth of the matter is that, there have been many factors that contributed to DPS dropout rate being above 10% but in no one has DPS dropout rate near 50% or greater as so many national news outlets and other sources try to portray to the people. Therefore DPS has a major image problem that no celebrity can fix but we the people of Detroit along with DPS must fix. The struggles of DPS are not new to us who fought for “Keep the Vote, No Takeover” and to those of us who fought to get us an elected school board. The struggles of DPS are not new to those of us who fought against corruption in DPS for years while at the same fighting against those who kept us the people out of backroom doors deals and the sort.

Therefore if DPS image problem is to be fixed, it starts with Robert Bobb and the State of Michigan listening to us the people grips and pains as it relates to the educational process of our students. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the problems of DPS that exist outside of finances and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that even if DPS budget is fixed, there are clear signs that the district will not improve academically without the input of us the people. We the people of Detroit just want a sit at the table to express our views and beliefs as to want needs to happen to improve the overall image of DPS.

Nonetheless, until that happens Detroit Public Schools has to fix its image problem to get the correct information out there to the public. DPS’s public spokesman should have wrote a letter to BET expressing that much of their data was inaccurate and in the process an opinion piece should have been written by Robert Bobb or the district’s academic superintendent expressing displeasure in the inaccuracies of BET’s documentary. The students of DPS deserve the truth to be put out there so that they can have pride about their district as well as individual schools. Also we the citizens of Detroit as well as DPS alumni deserve the truth to be put out there about district which is why when national media outlets or other national media report on DPS in a bias way that distorts the truth, we need to have quick responses to stand up for Detroit and our school system. We can’t allow people to continue to pick on Detroit and to do it in a way that exaggerates the truth in order to make it seem as if DPS is the worst educational system in America. This is just not the case and the truth shows it. Detroit has it woes and so does our school system but we as a community cannot and should not stand for people to tell accurate information or to put inaccurate data out there that is just not the truth.

DPS has to and must protect its image by all means and that starts today by making sure it deals with its image problem head on by fighting back against the lies and the distortions that exist not just nationally but locally in regards to Detroit Public Schools.

References
Information directly from BET website:
Class of '08
The high school dropout rate across the country is alarming. The numbers of Blacks outpace that of their White counterparts. In Detroit, the numbers are even more stark. This year, only 58.2% of Detroit's class of 2008 graduated.

Poverty
In 2007, Detroit had the highest poverty rate among large cities (places with a population of 250,000 or more people), 33.8 percent. (US Census Bureau 7/23/09)

Deficit
The Detroit Public School budget deficit is at $285 million. (The Detroit News 6/26/09)

Closures and Cuts
This year alone, DPS closed 29 schools and cut about 2,451 employees. (The Detroit News 6/30/09)

Nationwide Stats
More than 6 million American students drop out of high school, most of them Black and Latino.

No H.S. Dimploma
Almost half of all African American youth never finish high school.

Double the Rate
The number of Black kids that never finish high school is more than double the rate of Whites per capita.


Baltimore columnist: Money won't fix what's broken in Detroit schools
By STEPHEN HENDERSON
FREE PRESS EDITORIAL AND OPINION EDITOR

Detroit is attracting a lot of national interest these days. This morning, I see that interest is transcontinental in at least one way: a Baltimore columnist writing in a San Francisco newspaper about Detroit schools.

I worked with the columnist, Gregory Kane, when I was deputy editorial page editor for the Baltimore Sun.

Greg has a sharp tongue and a very pointed sensibility, one I often find myself in disagreement with.

But he's always provocative.

In this piece, he takes on Detroit's ailing schools, riffing off a BET documentary called "Heart of the City: Detroit's Drop Out Factories." See it http://www.bet.com/OnTV/BETShows/HOC_HeartoftheCity_Detroit_Main.htm">here.

Kane says: "Narrated by former University of Michigan and National Basketball Association star Chris Webber — who’s a native of Detroit — the documentary asked all the right questions but one: With the millions of federal tax dollars that must have been poured in to Detroit public schools, why do teachers have to buy supplies and why do students have to share textbooks? What has been done with all that federal money? (Michigan residents also must also be wondering what happened to the state tax money that went to the school system.)"

He says the mismanagement occurred "on the watch of Democratic elected officials who’ve been running Detroit into the ground for decades."

It's an interesting read, and can be found http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/gregory_kane/59193827.html">here


More money will not fix Detroit’s failing schools
September 14, 2009
By Gregory Kane
Baltimore Sun Times

For a brief second, I thought I’d been teleported into an alternate universe.

The guide on my DirecTV system showed I was tuned to the Black Entertainment Television network Saturday night, but clearly there was some mistake. Could this have been a serious, probing, intelligently made documentary about public education in Detroit I was watching?

Indeed it was. Entitled “Heart of the City: Dropped Out in Detroit,” the hourlong documentary painted a sobering picture of Detroit schools. It was quite a departure for a network with a reputation for showing a plethora of music videos with a bevy of scandalous, nearly butt-naked hoochies shaking their rumps.

That reputation was well-deserved. A while back, BET was one of the few, if not the only, cable/satellite networks to show the infamous “Tip Drill” video on a regular basis. True, it was on a notorious show called “Uncut” that aired from 3 to 4 a.m. But that didn’t mean boys barely into their teens didn’t watch it. I remember my experience at a Baltimore middle school when nearly every boy in an eighth-grade class, beaming with delight, described seeing “Tip Drill” on “Uncut.”

BET gave the ax to “Uncut” a while back, perhaps in no small measure as a reaction to protests coeds at Spellman College made against hip-hop artist Nelly, who made the song and video “Tip Drill.” Could execs at BET be turning over a new leaf by airing documentaries like “Heart of the City”?

Let’s all hope so. Instead of the dumbed-down fare most networks offer, “Heart of the City” asked serious questions about the Detroit public school system, where fewer than 30 percent of high school students graduate on time; where the graduation rate for black males is less than 20 percent; where test scores are among the lowest in the country; where teachers have to buy supplies from Office Depot; where students have to share textbooks; and where the system was so mismanaged that it’s $300 million in debt.

Narrated by former University of Michigan and National Basketball Association star Chris Webber — who’s a native of Detroit — the documentary asked all the right questions but one: With the millions of federal tax dollars that must have been poured in to Detroit public schools, why do teachers have to buy supplies and why do students have to share textbooks? What has been done with all that federal money? (Michigan residents also must also be wondering what happened to the state tax money that went to the school system.)

The documentary provided part of the answer, referring to “years of financial mismanagement and corruption” that plagued the Detroit public school system. It takes quite a bit of mismanagement to run up $300 million of debt, and I’m sure many have taken note that the mismanagement occurred on the watch of Democratic elected officials who’ve been running Detroit into the ground for decades.

One of them, Rep. John Conyers, has on several occasions hinted that President George W. Bush is a racist. Another, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick — who was convicted on a perjury charge — got nailed when he lied about having an affair with one of his staff members. Both denied having the affair under oath and got busted when steamy text messages between them came to light. How did Kilpatrick react? By blaming whitey and claiming the racists were out to get him. He even compared himself to Dr. Ossian Sweet, the courageous black Detroit doctor who defended himself and his home against a rampaging white mob that was rioting in 1925.

Guys like Conyers and Kilpatrick race-baited and race-hustled while Detroit’s public schools, figuratively, burned.

No amount of money can help schools when demagogues lead a city. Money can’t change mind-sets or attitudes. Money can’t help students who buy into the message of some rap songs, as Douglas Brooks, the valedictorian at Detroit’s Henry Ford High School this year and a freshman at Howard University, said in the documentary.

“The rap song, it’s telling you to sell the drugs,” Brooks said. “It’s telling you to look cool. It [selling drugs] makes you popular.”

One of the things viewers learn from “Heart of the City” is that Henry Ford High School had 300 gang members at one time. No student can learn in such an environment.

And no amount of tax money will change it, either.